Steve Jobs vowed to "destroy Android", according to a leaked excerpt from his authorised biography.

The late Apple co-founder told author Walter Isaacson that he was willing to spend all of the firm's money and his "last dying breath" taking down the Google platform, The AP reports.

Jobs perceived Android's similarity to Apple's iOS operating system as "grand theft". Prior to the release of the Google operating system, the companies worked closely together.

The search engine giant's services featured prominently on early iPhone devices and Google's Eric Schmidt sat on the Apple board. He resigned from the post in August 2009.

"I'm going to destroy Android, because it's a stolen product. I'm willing to go thermonuclear war on this," said Jobs. "I will spend my last dying breath if I need to, and I will spend every penny of Apple's $40 billion in the bank to right this wrong."